Bank gains offset by commodities and profit taking

Banks dominated the FTSE 100 this morning after stronger than expected results from Citigroup in the US. 

Royal Bank of Scotland shares were up 1.75% at 47.1p. Yesterday there were also reports that the bank was aiming to offload £1 billion in Spanish property loans. Standard Chartered, Lloyds and Barclays were also showing gains.

Fallers included ARM Holdings, which designs micro processors, down 2.15% at £3.90. Yesterday ARM Holdings' shares made gains but lost them today after Apple and IBM missed forecasts. ARM's designs are at the core of chips that power iPhones, iPods, iPads, and the Apple TV.

Essar Energy, India’s second largest private power supplier, is down 1.94% at £4.84. Its shares are down from a £5.03 peak last week. However, its shares were up in India according to reports, ahead of an auction involving India’s biggest non-state energy companies which were bidding in a government auction of oil and gas blocks as India seeks to cut oil imports and increase domestic production.

Software development and distribution company Autonomy was down 1.9% at £13.92. Today the firm reported revenue of $211 million in the third quarter to the end of September, up 10% from Q3 2009 and the highest third quarter revenues in the company's history. Yesterday the company closed up at £14.19 after closing at £13.48 on Friday. On October 6, Autonomy cut its 2010 guidance causing its shares to drop from £18.52 to £15.51.

The CBI’s Industrial Trends Survey was due out this morning. Samuel Tombs, UK Economist at Capital Economics said the news had been upbeat but ‘given the sector’s reliance on exports, order books may soon deteriorate as fiscal squeezes kick in abroad.’

Gold was selling at $1,368 per ounce and oil stood at $82.6 per barrel.

The pound was worth $1.58 against the dollar and €1.14 against the euro.